London midday: Footsie bursts through 5200
With the price of gold crashing through the $1,100 and other metal prices on the up, miners are leading a strong advance by Footsie.Demand for mining stocks has been spurred by comments at the close of the G20 summit pledging a continuing commitment to providing economic stimulation to the world economy.
Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta and Xstrata all push on strongly as metal prices take flight in the wake of the G20 pronouncement. Meanwhile, mining giant Anglo American has added former Sainsbury chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, to the board in a non-executive role. Hampton has been chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) since February 2009.
Financials are also wanted, with the rally by global markets providing a welcome boost to the portfolio valuations of insurers such asPrudential, Standard Life and Legal & General, while cash-strapped bank Royal Bank of Scotland is in demand after week-end analysis of last week’s results and government asset protection scheme announcement.
Inmarsat is on a high after the satellite operator lifted profits by nearly a third over the past three months. Revenue overall in the three months to September rose by 8.7% to $176.7m (2008: $162.5m). Profit before tax rose by 31% to $70m. Free cash flow rose 6% to $102.9m (2008: $54.0m).
Fellow Footsie stock G4S is the worst performing blue chip even after it said things have been steady at the security services firm since August’s interims, with operating profit for the first nine months of 2009 up 25% at actual exchange rates and revenue up by 23%. At constant exchange rates, profit rose 12% and revenue by 9%.
The market is waiting to see whether US processed foods group Kraft will announce a hostile bid for UK confectionerCadbury today. The deadline for the bid decision is 5:00pm today. Kraft is expected to launch a bid slightly above the Ł10.2bn offered when it approached the Dairy Milk firm in September, a person familiar with the deal told the Times.
Insurer and reinsurer Beazley has seen strong growth in premiums written this year, even after it pushed through rate increases. Gross premiums written in the first nine months of 2009 rose 45% to Ł861.9m from Ł595.4m in the first nine months of last year.
Hiscox is in confident mood after boosting premium income by 31.7% in the first nine months of 2009, giving the specialist insurer “good reasons to be optimistic”.
Sales slumped further at Aer Lingus over the past three months with revenue down by nearly 10% as fares came under heavy pressure both on short-haul and long-haul flights.
Oil and gas production levels were both higher in the third quarter at energy company JKX Oil and Gas. Total production in the third quarter of 2009 rose to 13,657 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 24% from 10,978 boepd in the same period of 2008.
Metal basher IMI has made a thumping gain after saying it expects earnings this year to come in " materially higher" than previously forecast as higher margins have offset a sharp fall in revenues.
Shares in online poker giant PartyGaming have come up trumps following the group’s purchase of the owner of the World Poker Tour brand. The company has paid Ł12.3m in cash for WPT Enterprises.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Prudential (PRU) 610.00p +5.54%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 38.96p +5.13%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,275.00p +5.11%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 83.20p +4.26%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
G4S (GFS) 250.40p -0.95%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,946.00p -0.66%
Cable & Wireless (CW.) 138.20p -0.58%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,814.00p -0.49%
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